In the latter 1800s and early 1900s, a popular form of literature was the local county history and citizen biography book. Virtually every county in every state in America had several such history books written about it during this period.
When researching German-American ancestors, especially ones who lived in rural areas, always check for local county history and citizen biography books published in the county where they settled. If your ancestor was featured in a biographical sketch, it may give a great deal of valuable information that might not be found anywhere else.
FamilySearch.org has many such books freely available online in their collection, as do Google Books and the Internet Archive.
Josiah, you probably already know that I published a “Follow Friday” post about your blog. I used a screen shot of your header, but this this morning it occurred to me that you might not appreciate my having used it without your permission. If that’s so, I’m very sorry and will remove the image if you’d like. Please let me know. Thanks.
Hi Nancy! Please feel free to use screenshots from my website. I publish my entire website under a Creative Commons license, so take what you like. I believe in sharing. 🙂